In our post-Christian times, bearing false
witness is becoming all too commonplace  and the cost is very high. Lets take
a look at some examples:

Example One
A few years ago, in Minnesota, Joe and Mary Doe (not their real names) suddenly found
themselves in a terrifying dilemma. One day, police officers arrived at their door and
announced that Joe had been accused of child molestation. Worse, he was accused of
molesting his own two-year-old daughter. The police carted off the Does two small
children and a long, costly, legal battle ensued.

The young couple was flabbergasted. How could this happen? As the story
unfolded, the Does found out that a neighbor had phoned a child abuse hotline because she
had seen Joes 2-year old daughter sitting on his lap trying to undo his shirt
buttonsomething probably every father who has ever lived has experienced. She
interpreted it is child molestation and turned Joe in.

Upon investigation, the police found no culpability in Joe, and no
charges were brought. Eventually, the couples children were returnedbut the
legal costs bankrupted them, and they lost their home as a result. The emotional stress
had been enormous.

All this pain and suffering was the result of a false accusation made
via a child abuse hotline.

Example Two
A young woman who worked as a receptionist for a well-respected professional man learned
one day that her husband had been killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. As the
mother of two young children, she was devastated. Long a strong Christian, she
couldnt understand how God would allow such a thing to happen.

She quit her job and moved to the mid-West to live with her own parents
for a while to get over the hurt and work things through. At some point, she met a man
there, whom she eventually married. After marriage, they moved back to Los Angeles where
she reestablished contact with her former employer and his wife. Because of financial
problems, she had to take another job, so the man and his wife offered to take care of the
two children on a part-time basis to help her out.

After a short while, our good Samaritans began to suspect the new
stepfather of child molestation. The evidence seemed quite solid. They expressed their
concern to the young mother. She reported their fears to her husband who then decided that
the best defense is offence. The new husband filed a molestation charge against the man
who had sought only to do a good deed.

The result was a long, ugly, costly, court battle in which the
professional man was eventually cleared of all charges. The emotional stress levied on
this good Christian man was enormous. His reputation suffered, and it was very hard for
him and his wife to keep from becoming angry and bitter about what had been done to them.

Again, we see the bitter fruit of false witness.

Example Three
Heres a third example: In a nice suburban neighborhood, there lived a young Mormon
couple who had two childrenboth of whom they home-schooled. One day the children saw
a peacock in their yard. They wanted to get a closer look, so they kept following it,
hoping it would eventually slow down so they could examine its gorgeous colors. The
peacock ran into the yard of a particularly nasty neighbora woman with a chip on her
shoulder as big as all outdoors. The women saw the children in her yard and immediately
called the police. She informed them that the children were "out running around the
neighborhood" when they "should be in school." The police arrived and
interrogated the parents about their children. In addition, they went all around the
neighborhood interviewing neighbors to see if a case could be made against them.

The situation was both embarrassing and incredibly stressful. The
police informed the couple that if their children were determined to be truants, they
could be taken from them and placed in foster homes. Because of the false accusation of
one mean-spirited person, this young family soon found itself putting the house up for
sale and putting as much distance between themselves and that terrible experience as they
could. Because of that single, malicious phone call, their whole lives had been thrown
into upheaval.

The Bitter Fruit of False Witness
Thousands of people have suffered in this country because of the false witness of others.
Even if they are found innocent of all charges, they have still financial loss, loss of
reputation, and, in many cases, loss of health as a result of the stress involved.

False witness has become a lifestyle for some. In 1992, the last year
for which we have statistics, 1,227,223 Americans were falsely accused of child abuse1.

Virtually anyone who has any contact with childrenparents,
grandparents, schoolteachers, social workers, scoutmasters, doctors, and dentistsis
at risk of false accusation. Yet, according to those who have studied the charges, most
are baseless. According to Richard Wexler, author of Wounded Innocents, no more than 13 of
every 100 such charges turn out to have any merit.

According to the American Trial Lawyers Association, about half of all
divorce cases involving children include allegations of child abuse. Most of these
allegations turn out to be false.

The very fact that such charges are so frequently filed has created a
climate of paranoia around children. This, in turn, has resulted in draconian measures to
"protect" children. For example, in San Mateo County (CA), all volunteers and
employees of community groups that have any contact with children must be fingerprinted
and must submit to criminal background checks2.

In Colorado, a pending law would require all parents to allow
government social workers to inspect their homes for potential child abuse problems. No
search warrants would be required, and social workers could enter homes at will. The law
is called "The Childrens Welfare Act."

As a result of proliferating false witness, parental rights, the right
to privacy, and other rights and freedoms are being eroded. Burgeoning Big Brother
government is using this and other pretexts, to invade the sanctity of the American home.
What used to be termed "illegal search and seizure" is now being legalized and
"normalized."

Who Benefits? Or, "Follow the Money"
Like everything else in American life, if you follow the money and the power you
eventually find out whats going on.

The money flows to attorneys, to child abuse counselors and to social
workers3. Government agencies at all levels gain ever more power and control
over a wider range of American life. Of course with the growth of laws and the agencies to
enforce them comes an increase in taxes to fund them. Ultimately, all kinds of people
benefit from the false witness industryexpect those who are falsely accused.

Our Role as Christians
As Christians, we must be very certain that we never participate in any act of false
witness. At the same time, we must realize we are more likely than not to be the focus of
such accusations. In this once-Christian nation, anti-Christian feeling is mounting.
Christians have become targets.

You must be certain that you are never guilty of anything that could be
construed to be child abuse. If you discipline your children in public, you could find
yourself being accused. (In about 80% of all cases where children are separated from their
parents, excessive punishment is alleged.)

If your child has any bruises, illnesses, or emotional upsets, those
can be construed to be symptoms of abuse by those who are paranoid about such things. If
people start asking questions about these things, consider them a threat.

Anytime you are alone with a child who is not your own, you make
yourself vulnerable to charges. Try to avoid any situation that gives the appearance of
potential child abuse.

If authorities interview your children for suspected abuse, be certain
every interview session is videoor audio taped. Be sure to stay in close contact
with your lawyer.

America the Changing
America is changing. It is moving slowly, incrementally, subtly, in the direction of a
socialist police state. The Constitution lies in tatters and civil rights are being eroded
piecemeal every day. It is no longer a plus to list "Christian" on your resume.
The children of the leftist 60s have taken over the reigns of government, and are now
becoming the new Establishment throughout the country. At every level of American life,
government, education, the press & media, entertainment, the trend is away from
biblical values and toward pragmatic, cold-blooded, materialism or rank paganism.

In our time, just about any societal problemreal or
imaginedcan be used as a pretext for a government power grab. Look, for example, at
what has been taking place under the "Wetlands Act," and under the pretext of
protecting the environment. Environmental issues, popular in the 60s and 70s are making a
comeback. Why? Because they are a way for government to grab land, power, jurisdiction and
funding. (I recently read that government now owns up to 28% of all the land in the U.S.)

False accusations about child abuse are a way for myriad interests to
grab power, money and control in the lives of anyone so accused. Malicious people, intent
on destroying other peoples lives, can use any pretext to force others into costly
legal battles. In some cases, the accused, though cleared, never recover from the
financial devastation wreaked by legal costs.

Ministries Brought Down
We have also seen viable Christian ministries brought to nothing through malicious
"third party" reporting. We know of one ministry that has been entangled in a
long and costly legal battle with a government agency because of an allegedly false report
filed with that agency by a spiteful relative of the president. For four long years, with
no end in sight, the meager resources of that ministry have been drained off in legal fees
and debt retirement. The impact of that ministry has been totally neutralized by its
struggle for survival.

False Witness Epidemic
Malicious third party reporting shows up in every walk of life. We have seen businesses
destroyed because competitors have falsely accused their leaders of racial or sexual
discrimination. We have heard of accusations of "stealing intellectual property"
that resulted in lawsuits that destroyed the already-thin margins of some companies. We
know of a substantial computer company that was falsely accused, entered into a long and
costly legal battle, which it won, only to go broke because it has used up all its funds
defending itself.

False witness has become a weapon of competition. It has become a way
of getting revenge in bitter divorce cases. It has become a means for employees to get
back at employersand vice versa. It has become a way to get rid of unwanted
neighbors and to expand government power. Most of all, it has become another way to fill
the already bulging coffers of law firms.

The average person in todays America lives in a very precarious
financial position. It takes little to ruin him or her. A single, frivolous lawsuit can do
it. The same is true for many small to mid-sized businesses. Legal fees are a growing cost
of doing business.

The false witness industry is a symptom of the burgeoning evil that
characterizes our times. Ravi Zacharias writes, "Can we appeal to our collective
conscience while a few still remain who realize there must be fences in life, else
predators, with unrestrained and insatiable passions, will break down every wall of
protection and relentlessly plunder everything we treasure?"4

As Judeo-Christian values continue to be leached out of our culture by
the acids of creeping secularism and paganism, we find ourselves confronted with growing
evil on every side. False witness is but one indicator. At some point, Gods people
will have to reassert themselves to the point where they again have an impact on the
cultural landscape. Zacharias puts it this way:

"As the face of evil becomes more hideous and ruthless, the face
of the future becomes more fearsome and dreaded. Yet for the gospel message this may be
the most significant moment in history, for the message of Christ provides the only
supernatural hope of a changed heart and life."5

The apostle Paul warned prophetically, "Now the Spirit expressly
says that in latter times some will depart from the faith speaking lies in hypocrisy,
having their own conscience seared with a hot iron " (1Ti 4:1,2 excerpts).

Those who accuse others falsely, bringing about heartache, stress and
financial crisis in the lives of the accused, do so without conscience. As a culture, we
are no longer "one nation under God." We have become one pluralistic nation
under multiple gods to the exclusion of the true God. With the dismissal of God from our
culture comes the exit of his moral and ethical standards. Ethical monotheism is giving
place to unethical pluralism.

The way to stop the false witness industry in its tracks would be to
end the payoff. It would impose upon false witnesses all of the damage they had done to
their victims. This principle is firmly established in Biblical law:

"One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any
iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter
shall be established. If any false witness rises against any man to testify against him of
wrongdoing, then both men in the controversy shall stand before the Lord, before the
priests and the judges who serve in those days. And the judges shall make diligent
inquiry, and indeed, if the witness is a false witness, who has testified falsely against
his brother, then you shall do to him as he thought to have done to his brother; so you
shall put away the evil person from among you. And those who remain shall hear and fear,
and hereafter they shall not again commit such evil among you" (Dt 19:15-20).

In our time, false witness has become a great evil. It must be
recognized as such. It must be fought. If it is not resisted, it will grow worse and do
ever more damage. The writer of Ecclesiastes put it this way:

"Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed
speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."
(Ecc 8:11).

Evil people will do whatever they can get away with. God has not called
his people to be doormats. We do have the right to defend ourselves. Christians must not
remain passive in the face of evil. Just as we are to "resist" the devil, we
must also resist evil people who seek to take advantage of us. When the rights of villains
exceed the rights of victims, its time for the tide to turn. Society is what we have
all, collectively, made it. What we have made it is not looking good!

A Word of Qualification
We have spoken here of the deleterious effects of false witnessbut what if the
witness is true? Child molestation, employee abuse, spousal abuse, employer abuse, racism,
sexism, and other forms of unjust discrimination, are also great evils in our culture.
When they really do occur, they too should be prosecuted. Children, in our society, should
be safe wherever they go. All adults have the collective responsibility to protect
societys childrenwhether their own or others. No child should ever feel
threatened in the presence of an adult.

We are our brothers keepers. Evil is present in our culture on a
grand scale. Why? Because we have permitted it to grow like yeast in our midst. We have
for example, in the Los Angeles area, permitted 150,000 gang members to control whole
neighborhoods through threat and intimidation. Now the problem is utterly unmanageable. We
have permitted organized crime to corrupt our judges, our politicians, our police, and our
business people. Now we live with the results.

We have rendered our borders porousnow we live with the tide of
illegal immigrants, drugs, terrorists, and spies that such policies result in.
Theres a principle at work here: be prepared to live with whatever you feed! If we
feed the false witness industry, well always have to live with it. The same is true
of any evil. In Proverbs we read:

"Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but such as
keep the law contend with them" (Pr 28:4).

If we do not contend with evil, it will grow unopposed.

__________

Endnotes:

1. Department of Health and Human Services figures
2. Wake-Up Call America, May/June 1997, p. 24
3. In California, a therapist who files a complaint can begin getting funds from Victim
Witness Funding. For each complaint, he or she can get up to $46,000.
4. Deliver Us From Evil, p. 21
5. ibid. p. 172

[Brian Knowles is completing two books: The Book of Repentance;
Because There Was No Shepherd.]